Source · IOPC Learning Case

Recommendation - Greater Manchester Police, June 2022

Greater Manchester Police Ref: 2021/153190 Recommended 8 Jun 2022 Response due 3 Sep 2022

Custody and detention Death and serious injury

This organisational learning was identified from a local Death or serious injury report following an incident in custody.

View on IOPC website ↗

Recommendations

1 total

Recommendation 1

The IOPC recommends that Greater Manchester Police should ensure custody cell doors are equipped with an opening hatch that allows officers to be able to hear and communicate with detainees without the requirement to open the cell door in order to facilitate this. This follows an IOPC review of a Death and Serious Injury (DSI) local investigation by the Professional Standards Department (PSD) of Greater Manchester Police where a custody officer needed to open a cell door to be able to understand, and speak with, a detainee. The detainee subsequently attempted to flee the cell and the custody officer moved to close the cell door to prevent this. However, the detainee caught their hand in the door and sustained a fracture as a result. Do you accept the recommendation? Yes

Addressed to: Greater Manchester Police

Linked bodies: Greater Manchester Police

Accepted

Force response

Accepted action: During the meeting between the IOPC and GMP custody representative it was established that whilst the injuries sustained were serious the behaviour of the detainee significantly contributed to the outcome. It was also established that the custody suite in question was around seventeen years old. The detention room doors in question do adhere to Home Office guidance documents which were in place at the time of installation and updated Home Office guidance made no requirement to retrospectively refit such doors. It was accepted that the IOPC recommendations present an opportunity to review these doors accordingly. Following a review of GMP custody estate we have identified that the learning recommendations infer that GMP should remove and replace twenty-four detention room doors across six custody suites. An estimate for this remedial work is in the region of £86,000 and would create a minor disruption to custody services provided across the six sites. Through planned upgrades of the custody suites over the next 7 years GMP would be in a position to replace the doors as recommended by the IOPC to avoid any further injuries being caused. However, through consultation with the force senior leadership team and our estates we can now bring this timeline forward to replace the doors overall 4 year period. This will of course mean that we will start to replace the doors identified as a priority and then replace those others over that time period.